FOLSOM — As his team warmed up on Folsom’s blue turf Friday night, Bellarmine College Prep coach Mike Janda promised that his players would play fast and hard against a team loaded with big-play talent and nearly unbeatable at home.

Bellarmine indeed played fast and hard.

And when this instant classic of a game ended, the Bells were Northern California Division I-AA champions as Antonio Garcia scored on a 26-yard run with 41 seconds left and Bellarmine knocked away a pass attempt in the end zone on the final play to stun Folsom 42-35.

Vincent Fernandez set up the winning score, returning an interception 54 yards to the 31 with 58 seconds to go.

Bellarmine (13-1) moves on to play for a state championship next Friday night at Sacramento State against Mission Viejo, which edged Helix on Friday.

“That’s been our goal since freshman year,” Garcia said. “I can’t wait to be playing at Sac State with my boys next week.”

The victory ends Folsom’s 43-game home winning streak — one that stretched to 2010 — and was Janda’s 270th, which breaks the all-time Central Coast Section mark held by retired Saratoga coach Benny Pierce and matched by Janda last week.

“We all knew coming in that they were an explosive team,” Janda said. “They showed it. Our job was to make another play somewhere along the line, and luckily Vince got a big interception.”

But before Fernandez’s game-turning play, the Bells were seemingly down to a final snap with under three minutes to play. Their two-touchdown, third-quarter lead suddenly a one-touchdown deficit — Folsom can strike in a hurry — they were staring at fourth-and-12 from the Folsom 39.

Not a problem, as it turned out.

As he has done in clutch moments all season, quarterback Troy Martig threw a 24-yard pass to Fernandez to the 15. On the next play, Garcia scored to tie it 35-35 with 2:18 to play.

“It was a position we’ve been in all year,” Martig said. “We’re comfortable in that position coming back. We’ve been coming back all year, fourth-quarter comebacks. I guess that’s what we do this year.”

Folsom (14-1) moved into Bellarmine territory on its next series, looking as if it was driving for the decisive score.

But Fernandez intercepted a pass near the sideline and then immediately became a running back. He followed a convoy down the sideline, getting a vicious block along the way, and finally went down at the 31.

“It’s all preparation,” Fernandez said. “Early in the fourth quarter, the quarterback kept throwing that corner route and, after awhile, I kept thinking in my head, ‘They’re going to throw this ball again.’ I anticipated it and made a jump on the ball. The ball came right to me.”

Bellarmine led by two touchdowns in the third quarter, but that lead evaporated quickly.

Two touchdowns by Tre Green and a 96-yard kickoff return by Eric Davis gave Folsom the lead.

Folsom, which had won its previous 30 games, never got its quick-strike offense going in the first half but stayed patient on its opening series, driving 75 yards in 13 plays for a 7-0 lead.

The crushing play for Bellarmine was a 21-yard pass from Jake Jeffrey to Drake Stallworth on fourth-and-21 from the Bells’ 46.

Two plays later, on second down from the 22, Jeffrey threw screen pass to Green, and the senior running back cruised into the end zone.

Bellarmine evened the score 7-7 when Martig threw a 43-yard pass to Fernandez on a third-and-14 play.

Jacob Bergstrom intercepted a deflected pass for Bellarmine on Folsom’s next series, and the Bells dialed up their own lightening-quick score one play later as Martig threw a 71-yard strike to Kyle Macauley for a 14-7 lead with 2:31 left in the second quarter.

Folsom reached the Bellarmine 7 in the final seconds before halftime but missed a 24-yard field-goal try, keeping the Bells in front by a touchdown at the break.

Ultimately, Bellarmine continued to play with the resolve that it has shown all season.

When the pass on the game’s final play was knocked out of the back of the end zone, the Bells charged the field in celebration.

“I was scared to death,” Janda said of the final Folsom threat. “As a coach, I was scared to death. Sometimes I didn’t even want to watch because they’re so good, they throw the ball so well and catch the ball so well and they’re so well coached, that you expect them to make plays.

“But our guys kept scrapping. I am so proud of them right now I can’t even tell you.”

Darren Sabedra is a sports reporter and the high school sports editor, overseeing prep coverage throughout the Bay Area. He's been with the Bay Area News Group since the early 1990s and has covered many sports beats, including Stanford football and basketball, pro baseball and the NFL. He also has worked on the sports copy desk.

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